Tick - How To Get It Out At Home. The Ways

2023 Author: Riley Dean | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 12:07

Tick. A tick bite can pose a serious threat to human health and life. Ticks are carriers of various infectious diseases, as a result of which serious damage to internal organs and systems can develop. In the next article, you will learn how to remove a tick at home, as well as what steps to take to prevent infection. There are many ways to remove a tick from a person. But not all of them are safe, and you can accidentally pull out only half of the tick (in the literal sense of the word), which will have a very adverse effect on the situation you are in.

The content of the article:

• 1 Tick - general removal rules
• 2 Mite - ways to get it out at home
• 3 Removing the tick with special tools
• 4 Removing the tick with the Tick Twister
• 5 Rules for removing ticks using the Anti-tick device
• 6 Mite - removal with a loop
• 7 What should never be done with a tick
• 8 What to do if the tick did not suck
• 9 What to do if bitten by a tick during pregnancy
• 10 The tick burst and the head remained, what to do
• 11 The enemy is defeated! What's next

• 12 Delivery of a tick for analysis: procedure

  • 12.1 Task number 1 - save the tick
  • 12.2 Task number 2 - contact your therapist or family doctor
  • 12.3 Task number 3 - carry the tick for analysis

Tick - general removal rules

If a person of any age and gender has been bitten by a tick, then the first step is to remove the insect as soon as possible, since the longer it is on the skin, the higher the likelihood of contracting infectious diseases.

It is necessary to remove the tick from any place on the body, and observing a certain technique, since the insect is very tightly attached to the skin with the help of a proboscis with peculiar processes. These processes make the proboscis of the tick look like a harpoon, so you can't just pull the insect out of the skin.

How to remove a tick correctly

But let's not rush and find out about our "enemy" in order. The tick is not such a harmless arachnid insect, but it is not necessary to be mortally afraid of it either.

As you know, ticks usually live in forest areas, near rivers and lakes, in fern fields and other similar places. If you decide to walk in such places, it is best to immediately protect yourself from the attack of such insects. This can be done by purchasing a special spray or aerosol at the pharmacy.

When biting, the tick is screwed into your body according to the principle of screwing in a screw, and clockwise.

If, nevertheless, having come home you found a tick, then you need to urgently take action. You should be very careful to pull out the tick, since the most important thing is not to tear it apart, otherwise the tick's head will remain rotting in your body, no matter how vile it sounds.

It can be noted right away that if you have picked up a very small tick, then you will not have a sweet tooth. Usually, a person does not feel pain when biting and pulling out a tick, since at this moment a special "pain reliever" acts on the area of the bite.

In order to remove it, do not drip oil, glue, milk onto the tick, close it with a can and perform any other actions aimed at clogging the spiracles of the insect located on the back of its body.

The fact is that when the spiracles are closed, the tick cannot breathe normally, and this makes it aggressive, as a result of which it splashes its saliva into the blood very intensively and in large quantities. Namely, saliva contains infectious agents that the tick carries. Thus, a blockage of the tick spiracles increases the risk of a person becoming infected with encephalitis or borreliosis.

You can remove a tick with your hands, tweezers, thick thread or special devices of domestic or imported production (Tick Twister, The Tick Key, Ticked-Off, Anti-tick), which are sold in pharmacies or in Medtekhnika stores. These devices have various forms and methods of application, therefore it is recommended to select the optimal type in Medtekhnika and use it as needed.

Such devices for removing ticks must be purchased in advance and carried with you during various trips to nature. If there are no devices, then you need to remove the tick with the usual improvised means, such as tweezers, thread, or the fingers themselves. Regardless of how the tick is removed, you should not touch the insect with your bare hands. This is due to the fact that when removed, the tick can be damaged and then the contents of its intestinal tract will get onto the skin, from which it can enter the systemic circulation if any small wounds invisible to the naked eye appear on it.

That is, removing a tick with bare hands increases the risk of contracting various infections.

That is why rubber gloves must be worn on your hands before removing the insect. If you don't have gloves, you can simply wrap your hands with a regular bandage or a clean cloth. Only by protecting your hands in this way, you can begin to remove the tick from the skin. After removing the tick, it is necessary to disinfect the wound by treating it with any available antiseptic, for example, iodine, Chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, calendula tincture or alcohol. It is optimal to treat the wound left over from the tick with alcohol or iodine.

After treatment, the skin is left without a bandage. If a person wants to donate a tick for analysis to determine whether it is a carrier of any infection, then the insect must be placed in a jar along with a piece of cotton wool moistened with water, the container must be closed and stored in the refrigerator. If a person does not want to give the tick for analysis, then the removed insect can simply be burned in the flame of a match, lighter or fire, or crushed with a shoe.

Tick - ways to get it out at home

Try twisting the tick. As mentioned above, the tick is screwed in clockwise, therefore it must be unscrewed in the opposite direction. Grasp the tick with your thumb and forefinger and slowly twist it (just don't tear it apart). If the tick is too small, or you simply do not want to touch it for some reason, then I advise you to use tweezers

• Coat the area where the mite is sitting with something greasy, such as vegetable oil. For the tick, this will act as a suffocation, it will no longer be able to feed and after a while it will get out on its own. After such a procedure, it can be pulled out without much effort.

  It is believed that this method can even harm a person. The fact is that before getting out, it releases a poisonous liquid, which increases the risk of infection.

Removal with a thread. You need to make a loop on the tick. Throw the thread on the offender and make a couple of turns on it so that you get a loop. Once you have captured the tick, start pulling it out slowly. This process can take several minutes. Also, do not use the floss method if the tick is too small, as it will be virtually impossible to capture the tick and you will only spoil your nerves

After you have pulled out the tick in one way or another, the question comes up: what to do with it? If you want to go to the infectious diseases hospital, where they conduct examinations for infection, then take the tick with you, there they will figure out what to do with it. If you just need to get rid of the tick, then burn it.

Removing a tick using special tools

The problem of ticks is so widespread that today even special devices are produced to remove them safely. The most popular are Tick Twister and Klinver.

Tick Twister allows in 98% of cases to completely remove the tick

They are a kind of hook with a wedge-shaped cut in the middle, with which you can pick up a tick near the proboscis and carefully remove it. This tool has two main advantages:

1. The body of the tick is not compressed. Thanks to this, it is possible to avoid throwing the contents of the tick's intestinal tract into the wound, which greatly reduces the risk of infection. For example, if a tick is a carrier of borreliosis, then using the Tick Twister or Klinver reduces the likelihood of getting sick by half.
2. The tick remains safe and sound. Then he can be taken for analysis in a laboratory in order to obtain reliable data on the presence or absence of infection. Very often it helps to start timely and adequate treatment.

Tick removal with the Tick Twister

This is the best tool for removing ticks for two main reasons.

• Firstly, Tick Twister allows in 98% of cases to completely remove a tick without tearing it and thus leaving the insect head in the skin. This is a very important advantage, since the head remaining in the skin will have to be removed with a needle, like a splinter, which is rather painful and unpleasant. In addition, the head of the tick remaining in the skin is a source of pathogenic microbes that the insect carries.
• Secondly, the use of the Tick Twister avoids pressure on the digestive tract of the tick, as a result of which there is no risk of splashing large amounts of insect saliva containing infectious agents.

When using tweezers, thread or fingers, there is often strong pressure on the tick's digestive tract, causing it to inject large amounts of saliva into the skin, which contains tick-borne pathogens. Accordingly, this saliva spray increases the risk of contracting an infection if it has not already happened.

In addition, the Tick Twister is very easy to use and does not hurt during the tick removal process. Using the Tick Twister is very simple: you need to grab the tick between the teeth of the device, then turn it around its axis counterclockwise 3 - 5 times and easily pull it towards you.

After a few turns counterclockwise, the mite is easily pulled out of the skin. After removing the tick, the place of its suction is treated with iodine or alcohol.

Rules for removing a tick using the Anti-tick device

Anti-mite is a special wire tweezers that allows you to reliably grip the mite and, at the same time, not press on its digestive tract, which ensures quick, effective and safe removal of the insect from the skin. To remove the tick with the Anti-tick device, you must capture the insect as close to the skin surface as possible. To do this, you need to push the tips of the tweezers apart by pressing the thumb and forefinger on the middle of the tweezers and place them so that the tick's head is between them.

Then you should stop the pressure on the middle of the tweezers, allowing its tips to close around the tick. After that, it is necessary to turn the device 3 - 5 times counterclockwise around its axis and easily pull it towards you. After removing the tick, it is necessary to treat the place of its suction with iodine or alcohol.

Mite - loop removal

If there are no special tools at hand, and the nearest first-aid post is out of reach, a simple thread will help solve the problem. From it you need to make a loop and wrap it around the tick. After this, the parasite must be slightly raised above the skin and tighten the loop on the proboscis. When the loop is firmly tightened, the tick is gently pulled out with light circular motions.

This method is quite reliable, especially if the tick has not yet had time to properly launch its tenacious paws into the skin. If this happens, first you need to carefully separate the pest from the body with tweezers, and therefore grab it with a loop. Most likely, you cannot do without helpers here.

What should never be done with a tick

Mistake # 1 - grabbing the tick with your bare fingers. If you grab the tick with your fingers and try to pull it out, it is likely to explode. This will not only interfere with laboratory testing, but also greatly increase the risk of infection if the tick turns out to be infectious.

Mistake # 2 - trying to "strangle" the tick. Many believe that if the parasite is coated with oil, grease, or some kind of thick ointment, it will soon die and can be easily removed. This is actually a very bad way. Firstly, it is no easier to extract a dead tick than a live one. Secondly, you can't take a dead parasite for analysis. And, thirdly, studies have shown that, while suffocating, the tick spews saliva and part of the absorbed food into the wound. Therefore, if he is a carrier of infection, the risk of getting sick increases.

Mistake number 3 - killing the tick with alcohol, vinegar and other caustic liquids. Also a very bad option. Cons are similar to the previous one. The same goes for cauterization with fire.

What to do if the tick does not suck

Many do not know what to do if the tick has bitten, but has not sucked. During a bite, pathogens can enter the body in time, so it is necessary to take the insect for analysis in any case. If it managed to escape, it is necessary to seek the advice of a specialist and pass all the necessary tests.

What to do if bitten by a tick during pregnancy

Ticks are doubly dangerous for pregnant women, because the fetus inside will also be under the negative influence of pathogens that have entered the body. In general, the measures for providing first aid and removing the insect are the same as in normal cases, with the only difference that the insect must be submitted for analysis as soon as possible.

Until the results come, doctors are unlikely to do anything, as they are afraid to harm the child. Immunoglobulin injections are also not used, since there is no data on how they affect the development of the fetus.

The tick burst and the head remained, what to do

If the removal of the parasite “cleanly” did not work and part of the mite remained under the skin, then you will have to work hard to remove it. Many "good" advisers say that nothing needs to be done, because soon a small abscess will form in this place and all the remnants will come out of the wound naturally along with pus. But that would be a big mistake! If a tick head or proboscis remains under the skin, then they must be pulled out.

This need is due to the fact that the main concentration of pathogenic microorganisms that the tick carries (with the exception of borreliosis) is contained in the salivary glands.

To perform this operation, you will first need to treat the wound with alcohol, and then, opening its edges with a sterile needle, carefully remove the remnants of the tick. The needle should be used to pick up and pull off the top layer of the epidermis for easy extraction of the parasite fragments with tweezers. And it is highly discouraged to poke around with a needle in the wound, trying to pull out the proboscis like an ordinary splinter. Thus, it is only possible to facilitate the entry of pathogens into the bloodstream. It is best to call someone for help and do everything slowly, but as carefully as possible.

The enemy has been defeated! What's next

The hardest part of the case is over. After removing the tick, the wound must be thoroughly treated with an antiseptic, for example, iodine or alcohol. It is also advisable to thoroughly wash your hands, tools and work surfaces. Now it only remains to conveniently equip the prisoner in a small plastic or glass vial and take him for analysis. There are 2 days for everything about everything.

Passing a tick for analysis: procedure

There is no universal set of rules for tick delivery. However, the general procedure is something like this:

Task number 1 - save the tick

How exactly to do this is indicated above, and in order to keep the parasite intact and safe, you need to put it in a glass or plastic jar, which already contains a wet gauze swab or cotton pad and, preferably, several fresh green leaves. The main thing is to leave enough air inside. In such an environment, the tick is quite capable of surviving for several days.

Task number 2 - contact your therapist or family doctor

To keep the parasite intact and safe, you need to put it in a glass or plastic jar, which already contains a wet gauze swab or cotton pad

Of course, if you go to a private laboratory, you can skip this step. But if the analysis is carried out in the SES or any other state institution, it is better, of course, to notify the district doctor first. He will record the appeal and write out the necessary directions that will help in the delivery of tests and preventive therapy (administration of immunoglobulins, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, etc.).

If you believe the reviews, sometimes you can hand over a tick to the SES without a referral. But this rarely happens and rather depends on the specific person on the spot. Therefore, if you go just like that, you can not agree on anything.

Task number 3 - carry the tick for analysis

Usually, all the necessary analyzes are done at the SES. Although usually in this institution, everything is limited only to a standard test for borreliosis. The rest of the infections, of which there are about a dozen, are detected upon infection and, most likely, the doctor will only advise you to monitor your well-being in the next few weeks.

In addition to SES, the necessary research is also carried out by infectious diseases hospitals and laboratories (both private and public). Alternatively, you can go to a commercial medical center. This option, although it will cost more, but in addition to the analysis, a map of observations will be drawn up and preventive therapy prescribed.

According to research results, on average, only 1 in 10 ticks are carriers of the infection (the specific parameter depends on the region), and the chances of becoming infected do not exceed 15%. But you need to take the problem seriously. It is important to remember the danger posed by ticks and in no case should you neglect it.

If you have the slightest doubt that you will be able to do everything right, it is better to go to the doctor right away. He will not only remove the parasite with specially designed tools, but will also outline a further plan of action that will help minimize all health risks.

Find out more:

• Eye mite - home treatment
• Tick-borne borreliosis - diagnosis, treatment and prevention